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[ C^ R R^Xr T ED K D I T I O N . ] 

POPE'S ' 



f| ^^S^Iii^N MAN; 

^^ I T? r^ TT D T. T. ^ ^/^^ ^ 



11: 



■45 



FOUR EPIS^TLBS 

TO 
HENRY ST. JOHN. LORD BOLINGBROKE5 

WITH 

NOTES 

TO 
^Sfiif^JHE CONSTRUCTION OF OBSCURE SENTENCES. 



EDITED RT A TEACHER. 







BOSTON: 
^ ILLIAM B. POWLE AND NAHUM CAPEN. 
1843 




/ <^ — ' — a — ---. 



I CORRKCTKD F. PITI O N . ] 

POP E'S 

ESSAY ON MAN; 

IN 

FOUR EPISTLES, 

TO 

HENRY ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE; 

WITH 

NOTES, 

TG 
INDICATE THE CONSTRUCTION Or OBSCURE 8E^-TENCE9. 



EDITED BY A TEACHER. 




BOSTON: 

WILLIAM B. FOVVLE AND NAHU},! CAPEN. 

1843. 



^-J - i -/ 






\\^^ 



\ 



.s? 



PREFACE. 



The high esteem in which Pope's Essay on Man 
is held by teachers, as a text book for the exercise 
of parsing, is sufficiently attested by the great num- 
ber of school editions. The more the Essay is 
used for this purpose, the more highly it will be 
appreciated, for the extreme condensation of the 
style forces the pupil to exercise his judgment in 
ascertaining the meaning of the author, and in sup- 
plying the ellipses. This edition has been very 
carefully compared with several standard e;litions, 
and will probably be fourid more free from errors of 
typography than any other American edition ; in- 
deed the only motive for the revision has been the 
extreme carelessness with which the Essay has 
hitherto been printed. 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843, 

By William B. Fowle & Nahum Capen, 
In the Clerk's Office oi the District Court of Massachusetts. 



s^ 



1 



AN 

ESSAY ON MAN. 

EPISTLE I . 

Of the Nature and State of Man, loith respect to 
the Universe. 

Of Man, in the abstract — That we can judge only with regard to our 
own system, being ignorant of the relations of systems and things, 17 — 
66. That man is not to he deemed imperfect, but a being suited to his 
place and rank in the creation, agreeable to the general order of things, 
and conformable to ends and relations to him unknown, 69, &c. That 
itisparily upon his ignorance of future events, and partly upon the 
hope of a future state, that all his happiness in ihe present depends, 77, 
&c. The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more 
perfection, the cause of man's errorand misery. The impiety of putting 
himself in the place of God, and judging of the fitness or unfitness, per- 
fection or imperfection, justice or injustice, of his dispensations, 113 — 
122. The absurdity of conceiting himself the final cause of the crea- 
tion, or expecting that perfection in the moral world which is not in the 
natural, 123 — 172. The unreasonableness of his complaints against 
providence, while on the one hand he demands the perfections of the an- 
gels, on the other the bodily qualifications of the brutes, 173. That to 
possess any of the sensitive faculties in a higher degree, would render 
him miserable, 179—2 )6. That throughout the whole visible world, an 
universal order and gradation in the sensual and mental faculties is ob- 
served, which causes a su!)ordi:iation of creature to creature, and of all 
creatures to man. The gradations of sense, instinct, thought, reflection, 
reason ; that reason alone countervails all the other faculties 207-232. 
How much farther this order and subordination of living creatures may 
extend above and below us ; were any part of which broken, not that 
part only, but the whole connected creation must be destroyed. The 
extravagance, madness, and pride, of such a desire, 233—258. The 
consequence of all, the absolute submission due to providence, both as 
to our present and future state, 281. 

Awake, my St. John ! leave all meaner things 
To low ambition, and the pride of kings. 
Let us (since life can little more supply 
Than just to look about us, and to die) 
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man ; 5 

A mighty maze ! btit not without a plan : 
A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot, 
Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit. 
Together let us beat this ample field, 

9 Let \x% belt, fry, explore, eye, shoot, catch, laugh, be cundid and 
vindicate. 



4 ESSAYONMAN. 

Try what the open, what the covert yield ; 10 

The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore 

Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar ; 

Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, 

And catch the n^a^ners living as they rise ; 

Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, 15 

But vindicate the ways of God to man. 

I. Say first, of God above, or man below, 
What can we reason, but from what we know ? 
Of man, what see we but his station here, 

From which to reason, or to which refer ? 20 

Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known, 

'T is ours to trace him only in our own. 

He, who through vast immensity can pierce, 

See worlds on worlds compose one universe. 

Observe how system into system runs, 25 

What other planets circle other suns, 

What varied being peoples every star, 

May tell why heaven has made us as we are ; — 

But of this frame, the bearings, and the ties. 

The strong connections, nice dependencies, 30 

Gradations just, has thy pervading soul 

Looked through ? Or can a part contain the whole ? 

Is the great chain that draws all to agree. 

And drawn, supports, upheld by God, or thee ? 

II. Presumptuous man ! the reason wouldst thou find^ 
Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind ? 

First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess, 

Why formed no weaker, blinder, and no less? 

Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made 

Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade ? 40 

Or ask of yonder argent fields above. 

Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove .-' 

Of systems possible, if 't is confest. 
That wisdom infinite must form the best. 
Where all must full or not coherent be, 45 

And all that rises, rise in due degree ; 
Then, in the scale of life and sense, 't is plain, 
There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man; 
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) 

23 He may tell. 

31 Has thy soul looked through the bearings, &c. of this frame ? 

SB, 33 Why thou art fnrmed. 

42 Sa tel'-li tes, the Latin syllabication. 

4a Where all must be full or not coherent. 



EPISTLEFIRST. 6 

Is only this, if God has placed him wrong ? 60 

Respecting man, whatever wi'ong we call, 
May, must be right, as relative to all. 
In human works, though labored on with pain, 
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain ; 
In God's, one single can its end produce, 55 

Yet serves to second too some other use. 
So man, who here seems principal alone, 
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. 
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal ; 
'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. 60 

When the proud steed shall know why man restrains 
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains ; 
When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod, 
•Is now a victim, and now Egypt's God ; 
Then shall man's pride and dulness compi'ehend 65 

His actions', passions', being's, use and end ; 
Why doing, suffering, checked, impelled ; and why 
This hour a slave, the next a deity. 

Then say not, man's imperfect, heaven in fault ; 
Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought ; 70 

His knowledge measured to his state and place, 
His time a moment, and a point his space. 
If to be perfect in a certain sphere, 
What matter, soon or late, or here or there ; 
The blest to-day is as completely so, 75 

As who began a thousand years ago. 

III. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, 
All but the page prescribed their present state : 
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know ; 
Or who could sutler being here below? 80 

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, 
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play ? 
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food. 
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. 
O blindness to the future ! kindly given, 85 

That each may fill the circle marked by Heaven, 
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, 
Atoms, or systems into ruin hurled, 
And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90 

Hope humbly then ; with trembling pinions soar ; 

55 One single movement. 
70 Ought to be. 

78 All but the page called, their present s'ate. 
80 Who could endure liping here ? 
1* 



Q EBSAYONMAN. 

Wait the great teacher, Death, and God adore. 

What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, 

But gives that hope to be thy blessing now. 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast ; 95 

Man never is, but always to be, blessed ; 

The soul, uneasy, and confined from home. 

Rests and expatiates in a life to come. 

Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutored mind 

Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; 100 

His soul, proud science never taught to sti'ay 

Far as the solar walk, or milky way ; 

Yet simple nature to his hope has given, 

Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heaven ; 

Some safer world, in depth of woods embraced, 105 

Some happier island in the watery waste, 

Where slaves once more their native land behold, 

No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. 

To BE contents his natural desire. 

He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire ; 110 

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, 

His faithful dog shall bear him company. 

IV. Go, wiser thou ! and, in thy scale of sense, 
AVeigh thy opinion against Providence : 
Call imperfection, what thou fanciest such ; 115 

Say, here he gives too little, there too much ; 

Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust. 

Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust. 

If man alone engross not heaven's high care, 

Alone made perfect here, immortal there ; 120 

Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod, 

Rejudge his justice, be the god of God ! 

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies ; 

All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. 

Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, 125 

Men would be angels, angels would be gods. 

Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, 

Aspiring to be angels, men rebel ; 

And who but wishes to invert the laws 

Of order, sins against the Eternal Cause. 130 

V. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine ? 

Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, " 't is for mine : 

93 Wait./or the great teacher. 
113 Go thou, wiser, &c. 
120 Bern,?- made. 121. God's hand. 
139 And he who but wishes, sins. 



E P I e T L E F I R S T . 7 

"For me kind nature wakes her gonial power, 

" Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower : 

" Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew 135 

" The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew ; 

" For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings ; 

" For me, health gushes from a thousand springs ; 

" Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise ; 

" My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." 140 

But errs not nature from this gracious end. 
From burning suns when livid deaths descend, 
When earthquakes svvallow, or when tempests sweep 
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep ? 
" No ('t is replied) the first, Almighty Cause 145 

" Acts not by partial, but by general laws ; 
" The exceptions few ; some change since all began : 
" And what created perfect ?" — Why, then, man ? 
If the great end be human happiness, 
Then nature deviates ; and can man do less ? 150 

As much that end a constant course requires 

Of showers and sunshine, as of man's desires ; 
As much eternal springs, and cloudless skies, 
As men forever temperate, calm, and wise. 

If plagues or earthquakes break not heaven's design, 155 

Why then a Borgia or a Catiline .'' 

Who knows, but He, whose hand the lightning forms. 

Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, 

Pours fierce ambition on a Ccpsar's mind. 

Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind } 160 

From pride, from pride, our very reasoning springs ; 

Account for moral, as for natural things : 

Why charge we heaven in those, in these acquit } 

In both, to reason right, is to submit. 

Better for us, perhaps, it might appear, 165 

Were there all harmony, all virtue here ; 

That never air nor ocean felt the wind, 

That never passion discomposed the mind. 

But, all subsists by elemental strife ; 

And passions are the elements of life. 170 

The general order, since the whole began, 

Is kept in nature, and is kept in man. 

VI. What would this man ? Now upward will he soar, 

And, little less than angel, would be more ; 

Now looking downward, just as grieved appears 175 

153 As much reiyw/res eternal springs. 

157 This Bui is a contraction of Be out, and the construction is, Be 

he out. 



8 ESSAYONMAN. 

To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears. 

Made for his use all creatures if he call, 

Say what their use, had he ihe powers of all ? 

Nature to these, without profusion, kind, 

The proper organs, proper powers assigned ; 180 

Each seeming want compensated of course. 

Here, with degrees of swiftness, there, of force ; 

All in exact proportion to their state. 

Nothing to add, and nothing to abate. 

Each beast, each insect, happy in its own : 185 

Is heaven unkind to man, and man alone .' 

Shall he alone, whom rational we call, 

Be pleased with nothing, if not blest with all ? 

The bliss of man, (could pride that blessing find) 

Is, not to act or think beyond mankind ; 190 

No powers of body or of soul to share. 

But what his nature and his state can beai*. 

Why has not man a microscopic eye .'' 

For this plain reason, man is not a fly. 

Say what the use, were finer optics given, 195 

To inspect a mite, not comprehend the heaven ? 

Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er, 

To smart, and agonize at every pore .-• 

Or, quick effluvia darting through the brain, 

Die of a rose in aromatic pain ? 200 

If nature thundered in his opening ears. 

And stunned him with the music of the spheres. 

How would he wish that heaven had left him still 

The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill ! 

Who finds not Providence all good and wise, 205 

Alike in what it gives, and what denies ? 

VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, 
The scale of sensual, mental power ascends : 
Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race, 
From the green myriads in the peopled grass ; 210 

What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam : 
Of smell, the headlong lioness between, 
And hound sagacious on the tainted green ; 
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood, 215 

To that which warbles through the vernal wood ; 

195 Wiiat zcould be the use. 19- Or jcere touch g-iven. 

193 Man were to smart, &ic. 

2>0 Mm icere to die, &-C. 

21 1 What modification of si^ht. of stnell, of hearing. 

215 From the lile, i. e. ihe living beings thai fill. 



B P I S T L E F I R S T . 9 

The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine ! 

Feels at each thread, and lives along the line : 

In the nice bee, what sense, so subtly true, 

From poisonous herbs, extracts the healing dew ? 220 

How instinct varies in the grovelling swine, 

Compared, half reasoning elephant, with thine ! 

Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier! 

Forever separate, yet forever near ! 

Remembrance and reflection, how allied ; 225 

What thin partitions sense from thought divide ! 

And middle natures, how they long to join, 

Yet never pass the insuperable line ! 

Without this just gradation, could they be 

Subjected, those to these, or all to thee ? 230 

The powers of all, subdued by thee alone. 

Is not thy reason all these powers in one ? 

VIII. See through this air, this ocean, and this earth. 
All matter quick, and bursting into birth. 
Above, how high progressive life may go ! 235 

Around, how wide ! how deep extend below ! 
Vast chain of being ! which from God began, 
Natures ethereal, human ; angel, man, 
Beast, bird, fish, insect ! what no eye can see, 
No glass can reach ! from infinite to thee, 240 

From thee to nothing. — On superior powers 
Weje we to press, inferior might on ours ; 
Or in the full creation leave a void. 
Where, one step broken, the great scale 's destroyed : 
From nature's chain whatever link you strike, 245 

Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 
And, if each system in gradation roll. 
Alike essential to the amazing whole ; 
The least confusion but in one, not all 
That system only, but the whole must fall. 250 

Let earth unbalanced, from her orbit fly. 
Planets and suns rush lawless through the sky, 
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, 
Being on being wi-ecked, and world on world ; 
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod, 255 

And nature tremble to the throne of God : — 
All this dread order break — For whom ? For thee ? 
Vile worm ! O madness, pride, impiety ! 

IX. What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, 

259 What absnrility it would be; and 2^3, 263, It wouM he just as 
absurd, &c. 



10 E S S A Y O N M A N . 

Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head ? 260 

What if the head, the eye, or ear, re[)ined 

To serve mere engines to the ruling mind ? 

Just as absurd, for any part to claim 

To be another, in this general frame : 

Just as absurd, to mourn the task or pains, 265 

The great directing mind of all ordains. 

All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body nature is, and God the soul ; 
That, changed through all, and yet in all the same, 
Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame, 270 

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees ; 
Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, operates unspent; 
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 275 

As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart ; 
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, 
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns ; 
To him, no high, no low, no great, no small ; 
He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all. 280 

X. Cease then, nor order imperfection name : 
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. 
Know tliy own point : This kind, this due degree 
Of blindness, weakness. Heaven bestows on thee. 
Submit — in this, or any other sphere, 285 

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear ; 
Safe in the hand of one disposing power, • 
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. 
All nature is but art, unknown to thee ; 
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see ; 290 
All discord, harmony not understood ; 
All partial evil, universal good : 
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, 
One truth is clear, " Whatever is, is right." 

273 The soul that warms, &c. being as full. &c. as in the rapt ee- 

ra])h. 
279 To Him no thinff is high, no thing low, &c. 



E IM S T 1. E S E C O N D . H 

EPISTLE II. 

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to 
Himself as an Individual. 

The business of man, not to pry into God, but to study himself. His 
middle nature ; His powers and frailties, and the limits of his capaci- 
ty, 43. The two principles of man, self love, and reason, l)Olh necessa- 
ry; self-love the stronger, and v/hy ; their end the same, 83. The pas- 
sions, and their use, 83—12 . The predominant passion, and ils force, 
122 — 150 ; its necessity in dir^clins; men to djifcrent purposes, 153, &c. 
Its providential use, in fixing oiir principles, and ascertaining our vir- 
tue, 167. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature ; the limits near, 
yet the things separate, and evident. What is ihe office of reason, 163, 
&c. How oiious vice is in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, 
207. That, however, the ends of providence and gcm'ral good are an- 
.swered in our passions, and imperfections, 225, itc. How usefully 
they are distributed to all orders of men, 231. How useful they are to 
society, 239, and to individuals, 247. In every slate, and in every age 
of life, 259, &c. 

I. Know then thyself, presume not God to scan ; 
The proper study of mankind is Man. 
Placed on this isthmus of a riiiddle state, 
A beino; darkly wise, and rudely great ; 
With too much knowledge for the skeptic side, 5 

With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride. 
He hangs between ; in doubt to act or rest, 
In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast ; 
In doubt his mind or body to prefer, 
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err ; 10 

Alike in ignorance, his reason such. 
Whether he thinks too little, or too much : 
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused ; 
Still by himself abused, or disabused ; 
Created half to rise, and half to fall ; 15 

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all ; 
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled ; 
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world ! 

Go, wondrous creature ! mount where science guides, 
Go measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides ; 20 
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, 
Correct old time, and regulate the sun ; 
Go, soar with Plato to the empyreal sphere. 
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair ; 
Or tread the rnazy round his followers trod, 25 

And quitting sense call imitating God ; 
As eastern priests in giddy circles run, 

26 And call (thou) q tting sense imitating God. 



12' E S S A Y O N M A N . 

And turn their heads to imitate the sun ; 

Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule ; 

Then drop into thyself, and be a fool ! 30 

Superior beings, when of late they saw 

A mortal man unfold all nature's law, 

Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape, 

And showed a Newton, as we show an ape. 

Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind, 35 

Describe, or fix one movement of his mind ? 

Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend, 

Explain his own beginning, or his end ? 

Alas, what wonder 1 man's superior part 

Unchecked may rise, and climb from art to art ; 40 

But when his own great work is but begun, 

What reason weaves, by passion is undone. 

Trace science then, with modesty thy guide ; 

First strip off all her equipage of pride ; 

Deduct what is but vanity or dress, 45 

Or learning's luxury, or idleness, 

Or tricks to shew the strength of human brain. 

Mere curious pleasure or ingenious pain ; 

Expunge the whole, or lop the excrescent parts 

Of all our vices have created arts ; 50 

Then see how little the remaining sum. 

Which served the past, and must the times to come ! 

II. Two principles in human nature reign ; 
Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain ; 
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, 55 

Each works its end, to move or govern all ; 
And, to their proper operation, still 
Ascribe all good ; to their improper, ill. 

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul ; 
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole. 60 

Man, but for that, no action could attend. 
And but for this, were active to no end ; — 
Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot. 
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot; 
Or, meteor like, flame lawless through the void, 65 

Destroying others, by himself destroyed. 
Most strength the moving principle requires ; 
Active its task, it pron>pts, impels, inspires ; 
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies, 

33 Could he (Newton), who saw its (the comet's) fires, esplain,&c- "J 

50 Of all arts that our vices have created. 

52 And must servo iho times to come. 

55 Nor this a good or bad -principle we call. 



i: P 1 S 1' L E SECOND. 13 

Formed but to check, deliberate, and advise. 70 

Self-love, still stronger, as its objects nigh ; 

Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie : 

That sees immediate good, by present sense ; 

Reason, the future, and the consequence ; 

Thicker than arguments, temptations throng, 75 

At best, more watchful this, but that more s-trong. 

The action of the stronger to suspend. 

Reason still use, to reason still attend : 

Attention, habit and experience gains ; 

Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. 80 

Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight, 
More studious to divide, than to unite ; 
And grace and virtue, sense and reason split, 
With all the rash dexterity of wit. 

Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85 

Have full as oft no meaning, or the same. 
Self-love and reason to one end aspire. 
Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire ; 
But, greedy, that its object would devour. 
This, taste the honey, and not wound the flower : 90 

Jr'lcasure, or wrong or rightly understood. 
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good. 

III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call ; 
'T is real good, or seeming, moves them all : 
But since not every good we can divide, 95 

And reason bids us for our own provide ; 
Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair. 
List under reason, and deserve her care ; 
Those, that, imparted, court a nobler aim. 
Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name. 100 

In lazy apathy let Stoics boast 
Their virtue fixed ; 't is fixed as in a frost, 
Contracted all, retiring to the breast ; 
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest : 
The rising tempest puts in act the soul, 105 

Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole. 
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, 
Reason the card, but passion is the gale : 
Nor God alone in the still calm we find ; 
He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. 110 

71 Oliject is nigh. 

72 Reason's ol.jecis lie at distance. 

76 More watchful this (i. e. rcaso:i) but that (self love) more strong. 
79 Attention gains habit, &c. 
31 Schoolmen, more studious, teach, split, &c. 
o 



14 E a S A Y O N M A IN . 

Passions, like elements, though born to fight, 

Yet, mixed and softened, in his work unite : 

These 't is enough to temper and employ ; 

But what composes man, can man destroy ? 

Suffice, that reason keep to nature's road, 115 

Subject, compound them, follow her and God. 

Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, 
Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain. 
These mixed with art, and to due bounds confined. 
Make, and maintain, the balance of the mind : 120 

The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife 
Gives all the strength and color of our life. 

Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes. 
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise ; 
Present to grasp, and future still to find, 125 

The whole employ of body and of mind. 
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike ; 
On different senses, different objects strike ; 
Hence different passions more or less inflame, 
As strong or weak, the organs of the frame ; 130 

And hence one master passion in the breast, 
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest. 

As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, 
Receives the lurking principle of death ; 
The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135 

Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength ; 
So, cast and mingled with his very frame. 
The mind's disease, its ruling passion, came ; 
Each vital humor which should feed the whole, 
Soon flows to this, in body and in soul ; 140 

Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head. 
As the mind opens, and its functions spread, 
Imagination plies her dangerous art. 
And pours it all upon the peccant part. 
Nature its mother, habit is its nurse ; 145 

Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse ; 
Reason itself but gives it edge and power, 
As heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sour. 
We, wretched subjects, though to lawful sway, 
In this weak queen, some favorite still obey ; 150 

114 Bnt can man destroy what composes man ? 

1 15 Suffice it, or let it suffice. 

121 Being the lights and shades. 

r25 7Vie present pleasures and the future. 

126 Being- the whole em\)\oyment. 

141 Pours it, i. e. wliatever warms or fills. 

150 In this weak queen, viz. the ruling passion. 



EPISTLESECOiND. 16 

Ah ! if she lend not arms, as well as rules, 

What can she more than tell us we are fools ? 

Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend, 

A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend ! 

Or, from a judge, turn pleader, to persuade 155 

The choice we make, or justify it made : 

Proud of an easy conquest all along, 

She but removes weak passions for the strong : 

So, when small humors gather to a gout, 

The doctor fancies he has driven them out. 160 

Yes, nature's road must ever be preferred ; 
Reason is here no guide, but still a guard : 
'T is hers to rectify, not overthrow. 
And treat this passion more as friend than foe : 
A mightier power the strong direction sends, 165 

And several men impels to several ends: 
Like varying winds, by other passions tossed. 
This drives them constant to a certain coast. 
Let power or knowledge, gold or glory, please, 
Or, oft more strong than all, the love of ease : 170 

Through life 'tis followed even at life's expense ; 
The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence, 
The monk's humility, the hero's pride, 
All, all alike, find reason on their side. 

The Eternal Art, educing good from ill, 175 

Grafts on this passion our best principle ; 
'T is thus the mercury of man is fixed. 
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mixed ; 
The dross cements what else were too refined, 
And, in one interest, body acts with mind. 180 

As fruits ungrateful to the planter's care. 
On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear, 
The surest virtues thus from passions shoot, 
Wild nature's vigor working at their root. 
What crops of wit and honesty appear, 1S5 

Fi'om spleen, from obstinacy, hate or fear ! 
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply ; 
Even avarice, prudence ; sloth, philosophy : 
Envy, to which the ignoble mind's a slave. 
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave : 190 

Nor virtue, male or female, can we name. 
But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame. 

Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride) 

152 What oil slie do more, &c. 

I'jJ Thus naiiirc give* to us the virtue, «fcc. 



16 ES8AYONMAN. 

The virtue nearest to our vice allied ; 

Reason the bias turns to good from ill, 195 

And Nero reigns a Titus if he will. 

The fiery soul abhorred in Catiline, 

In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine. 

The same ambition can destroy or save, 

And makes a patriot, as it makes a knave. 200 

IV. This light and darkness in our chaos joined, 
What shall divide ? The god within the mind. 

Extremes in nature, equal ends produce ; 
In man they join to some mysterious use : 
Though each, by turns, the other's bounds invade, 205 
As, in some well wrought picture, light and shade, 
And oft so mix, the difference is too nice 
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. 
Fools ! who from hence into the notion fall, 
That vice or virtue there is none at all. 210 

If white and black, blend, soften, and unite 
A thousand ways, is there no black or white .'' • 

Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain ; 
'T is to mistake them costs the time and pain. 

V. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 215 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face. 

We first endure, then pity, then embrace. 

But where the extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed ; 

Ask where 's the north ? at York, 't is on the Tweed ; 220 

In Scotland, at the Orcades ; and there. 

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where. 

No creature owns it in the first degree. 

But thinks his neighbor farther gone than he. 

Even those who dwell beneath its very zone, 225 

Or never feel the rage, or never own ; 

What happier natures shrink at with atTright, 

The hard inhabitant contends is right. 

Virtuous and vicious every man must be, 
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree ; 230 

The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise ; 
And even the best, by fits, what they despise. 
'T is but by parts we follow good or ill. 
For, vice or virtue, self directs it still ; 
Each individual seeks a several goal ; 235 

But heaven's great view is one, and that the whole ; 

10-5 Reason turns the bias. 

202 Tlie God wittiin the mind shall divide. 

200 As light and shade d.o. 



E P 1 S T L E 8 E C O N D . 17 

That counter works each folly and caprice 

That disappoints the effect of every vice : 

Tiiat happy frailties to all ranks applied, 

Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride, 240 

Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief, 

To kings presumption, and to crowds belief ; 

That virtue's ends from vanity can raise. 

Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise ; 

And builds on wants, and on defects of mind, 245 

The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind. 

Heaven, forming each on other to depend, 
A master, or a servant, or a friend, 
Bids each on other for assistance call, 
Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. 250 
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally 
The common interest, or endear the tie : 
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here ; 
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline, 255 

Those joys, those loves, those interests to resign ; 
Taught, half by reason, half by mere decay. 
To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 

Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, 
Not one will change his neighbor with himself: 260 

The learn'd is happy nature to explore, 
The fool is happy that he knows no more ; 
The rich is happy in the plenty given, 
The poor contents him with the care of heaven. 
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing, 265 

The sot a iiero, lunatic a king ; 
The starving chemist in his golden views 
Supremely blest, the poet in his muse. 

See some strange comfort every state attend, 
And pride bestowed on all, a common friend ; 270 

See some fit passion every age supply ; 
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. 

Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, 
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw ; 
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, 275 

A little louder, but as empty quite ; 
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage. 
And beads and prayer books are the toys of age : 

259 Whate'er the passion, &c. may be. 

255 See the beggar, the cripple, the sot, the lunatic, the che.-nist, ihe 
poet. 

2* 



J8 E S B A Y O N M A N . 

Pleased with this bauble still, as that before, 

Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er. 280 

Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays 

Those painted clouds that beautify our days ; 

Each want of happiness by hope supplied, 

And each vacuity of sense by pride : 

These build as fast as knowledge can destroy ; 285 

In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy ; 

One prospect lost, another still we gain. 

And not a vanity is given in vain ; 

Even mean self-love becomes, by force divine, 

The scale to measure others' wants by thine. 290 

See ! and confess, one comfort still must rise ; 

'T is this, though man's a fool, yet God is wise. 



EPISTLE III. 

Of the Nature and State of Mail, with respect to 
Society. 

The whole universe one system of society, verse 7, ifcc. Nothing 
made wholly for itsell, nor yel wholly for anoihcr, 27. The happiness 
of animals mutual, 49. Reason and instinct operate alike to the good fif 
each individual, 79. ^Reason and instinct operate aliLe to society, in all 
animals, 109. How iar society is carried hy instinct, 1I& ; how much 
farther by reason, 123. Of that which is called the state of nature, 144. 
Reason inftructed by instinct iti the invention of arts, 161 ; and in the 
forms of society, 171. — Origin of political soeiolics, 191. Orij^in of 
monarchy, 201. Patriarchal government, 207. Origin of true religion, 
and government, from the same principle of love, 22.5. Origin of su- 
perstition and tyranny, from the same principle of J'ear, 233. 1 he in- 
fluence of self love, operating to the social and public good, 263. Re- 
st, ration of true religion and government on their first principle, 275. 
INIised government, 2SU. Various forms of each, and true end of ali, 
295, &c. 

Here then we rest — " The universal cause 
Acts to one end, but acts by various laws." 
In all the madness of superfluous health. 
The train of pride, the impudence of wealth, 
Let this great truth be present night and day, 5 

But most be present, if we preach or pray. 

I. Look round our world ; behold the chain of love 
Combining all below and all above. 
See plastic nature working to this end, 
The single atoms each to other tend, 10 

Attract, attracted to, the next in place 

10 See the single atoms tend, each to the others. S;e them attract, &.c. 



E P I S T L C TH I RD. 19 

Formed and impelled its neighbor to embrace. 

See matter next, with various life endued, 

Press to one centre still, the general good. 

See dying vegetables life siistain, 15 

See life, dissolving, vegetate again : 

All forms that perish, other forms supply. 

By turns we catch the vital breath and die ; 

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne. 

They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 20 

Nothing is foreign ; parts relate to whole ; 

One all-extending, all-preserving soul 

Connects each being, greatest with the least ; 

Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast ; 

All served, all serving : nothing stands alone ; 25 

The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown. 

Has God, thou fool, worked solely for thy good, 
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food ? 
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, 
For him as kindly spreads the flowery lawn. 30 

Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings ? 
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. 
Is it fur thee the linnet pours his throat ? 
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note. 
The bounding steed you pompously bestride, 35 

Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. 
Is thine alone the seed that strows the plain ? 
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain. 
Thine the full harvest of the golden year ? 
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer. 4^ 

The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call. 
Lives on the labors of this lord of all. 

Know, nature's cliildren all divide her care ; 
The fur that warms a monarch, warmed a bear. 
While man exclaims, "• See all things for my use !" 45 
'■' See man for mine !" replies the pampered goose ; — 
And JList as short of reason he must fall. 
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all. 

Grant that the powerful still the weak control ; 
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole : 50 

Nature that tyrant checks ; he only knows, 
And helps another creature's wants and woes. 
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, 
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove ? 

50 B? man, i e. !el man be. 



20 E 8 S A Y O N M A N . 

Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? 55 

Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings ? 

Man cares for all : to birds he gives his woods, 

To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods ; 

For some his interest prompts him to provide. 

For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride : 60 

All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy 

The extensive blessings of his luxury. 

That very life his learned hunger craves. 

He saves from famine, from the savage saves ; 

Nay, feeds the animal he dooms his feast, 65 

And, till he ends the being, makes it blest; 

Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain, 

Than favored man by touch ethereal slain. 

The creature had its feast of life before ; 

Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er. 70 

To each unthinking being, Heaven, a friend, 
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end : 
To man imparts it ; but with such a view, 
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too : 
The hour concealed, and so remote the fear, 75 

Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. 
Great standing miracle ! that heaven assigned 
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind. 

II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blessed, 
Know, all enjoy that power which suits them best ; 80 
To bliss alike by (hat direction tend. 
And find the means proportioned to their end. 
Say, where full instinct is the unerring guide, 
what pope or council can they need beside ? 
Reason, however able, cool at best, 85 

Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, 
Stays till we call, and then not ofien near ; 
But honest instinct comes a volunteer, 
Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit ; 
While still loo wide or short is human wit ; • 90 

Sure by quick nature happiness to gain, 
Which heavier reason labors at in vain. 
This too serves always, reason never long ; 
One must go right, the other may go wrong. 
See then the acting and comparing powers, 95 

One in their nature, which are two in ours ; 
And reason raise o'er instinct as you can, 
In this 't is God directs, in that 't is man. 

93 This, viz. instinct. 

96 One in tfieir nature, i, e. in the nature of instine'.ive animals. 



E P I S T L E T H 1 R D . 21 

Who taught the nations of the field and wood 
To shun their poison, and to choose their food ? 100 

Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand. 
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ? 
Who made the spider parallels design. 
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line ? 
AVho bids the stork, Columbus like, explore 105 

Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before ? 
Who calls the council, states the certain day. 
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way ? 

III. God, in the nature of each being, founds 
Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds : 110 

But as he framed the whole, the whole to bless,. 
On mutual wants built mutual happiness ; 
So from the first, eternal order ran, 
And creature linked to creature, man to man. 
Whatever of life all quickening ether keeps, 115 

Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps. 
Or poui-s profuse on earth, one nature feeds 
The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds. 
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 
The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend : 120 

The young dismissed to wander earth or air. 
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care. 
A longer care man's helpless kind demands ; 
That longer care contracts more lasting bands ; 
Reflection, reason, still the ties improve, 125 

At once extend the interest, and the love. 
With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn ; 
Each virtue in each passion takes its turn ; 
And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise, 
That graft benevolence on charities. 130 

Still as one brood, and as another rose. 
These, natural love maintained, habitual those : 
The last, scarce ripened into perfect man^ 
Saw helpless him from whom their life began ; 
Memory and forecast just returns engage, 135 

That pointed back to youth, this on to age ; 
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combined. 
Still spread the interest and preserved the kind. 

JV. Nor think, in nature's state they blindly trod v 

lol Prescient or with foreknowleilije enough to withstand, &c. 

1 15 What-ver ether keeps or holds of life or aiive,0T whatever lireathes, 

shoots or pours. 
132 These maintained natural love, those maintained habitual love. 
13-1 Saw him helpless. 



23 E S S A T O N M A N . 

The state of nature v/as the reign of God ; 140 

Self-love and social at lier birth began, 

Union the bond of all things, and of man. 

Pride then was not, nor arts, that pride to aid ; 

Man walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade ; 

The same his table and the same his bed ; 145 

No murder clothed him, and no murder fed. 

In the same temple, the resounding wood, 

All vocal beings hymned their equal God ; 

The shrine with gore unstained, with gold undressed, 

Unbribed, unbloody, stood the blameless priest: 150 

Heaven's attribute was universal care, 

And man's prerogative, to rule, but spare. 

Ah ! how unlike the man of times to come ! 

Of half that live the butcher, and the tomb ; — 

Who, foe to nature, hears the general groan, 155 

Murders their species, and betrays his own. 

But just disease to luxury succeeds. 

And every death its own avenger breeds ; 

The fury-passions from that blood began, 

And turned on man a fiercer savage, man. 160 

See him from nature rising slow to art ! 
To copy instinct then was reason's part. 
Thus then to man the voice of nature spake — 
"Go, from the creatures thy instructions take : 
" Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield ; 165 
" Learn from the beasts the physic of the field ; 
" Thy arts of building from the bee receive ; 
" Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave : 
" Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 

" Spread the thin oar, and catch the drivmg gale. 170 
" Here too all forms of social union find ; 
"And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind : 
" Here subterranean works and cities see : 
" There towns aerial on the waving tree. 
" Learn each small people's genius, policies, 175 

" The ants' republic, and the realm of bees ; 
" How those in common all their wealth bestow, 
" And anarchy without confusion know ; 
" And these forever, though a monarch reign, 
" Their separate cells and properties maintain. ISO 

" Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, 
" Laws wise as nature, and as fixed as fate. 
" In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, 

149 The shrine beinff unstained. 



E P I S T L K J' il 1 R D . 23 

*' Entangle justice in her net of law, 

" And right, too rigid, harden into wrong ; 185 

" Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. 

" Yet go ! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 

" Thus let the wiser make the rest obey ; 

" And for those arts mere instinct could afford, 

"Be crowned as monarchs, or as gods adored." 190 

V. Great nature spoke ; observant man obeyed ; 
Cities were built, societies were made ; 

Here rose one little state, another, near. 

Grew by like means, and joined through love or fear. 

Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, 195 

And there the streams in purer rills descend > 

What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, 

And he returned a friend who came a foe. 

Converse and love, mankind might strongly draw, 

When love was liberty, and nature law. 200 

Thus states were formed ; the name of king unknown, 

'Till common interest placed the sway in one. 

'T was virtue only, or in arts or arms. 

Diffusing blessings, or averting harms ; 

The same, which, in a sire, the sons obeyed, 205 

A prince the father of a people made. 

VI. Till then by nature crowned, each patriarch sate, 
King, priest, and parent of his growing state ; 

On him, their second providence, they hung, 

Their lav/ his eye, their oracle his tongue. 210 

He from the wondering furrow called the food, 

Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 

Draw forth the monsters of the abyss profound, 

Or fetch the aerial eagle to the ground ; 

Till drooping, sickening, dying, they began 215 

Whom they revered as God, to mourn as man : 

Then, looking up from sire to sire, explored, 

One great First Father, and that first adored. 

Or, plain ti'adition that this all begun. 

Conveyed unbroken faith from sire to son ; 220 

The worker from the work distinct was known. 

And simple reason never sought but one : 

Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light, 

Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right ; 

'J'o virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, 225 

1S4 In vain shall entangle. 

185 And harden loo rigid riglit inta wrong. 

215 Till Ae drooping, &.C. the^ hegan to mourn, as man /lim, whom, &c. 

219 Or plain tradition conveyed, &c. 



34 ESSAY O N JM A N , 

And owned a father, when he owned a God. 

Love, all the faith, and all the allegiance then, 

For nature knew no right divine in men ; 

No ill could fear in God, and understood 

A sovereign being, but a sovereign good. 230 

True faith, true policy^ united ran, 

That was but love of God, and this of man. 

Who first taught souls enslaved, and realms undone, 

The enormous faith of many made for one ; 

That proud exception to all nature's laws, 235 

To invert the world, and counterwork its cause .? 

Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law ; 

Till superstition taught the tyrant awe, 

Then shared the tyranny, then lent it aid, 

And gods of conquerors, slaves of subjects made ; 240 

She, 'midst the lighl'ning's blaze, and thunder's sound, 
When rocked th€ mountains, and when groaned the 

ground, — 
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray 
To power unseen, and mightier far than they : 
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies, 245 

Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise : 
Here fixed the dreadful, there the blest abodes ; 
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods ; 
Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, 
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust : 250 

Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, 
And formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe., 
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide ; 
And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride. 
Then sacred seemed the ethereal vault no more ; 255 
Altars grew marble then, and reeked with gore : 
Then first the flamen tasted living food ; 
Next, his grim idol smeared with human blood. 
With heaven's own thunders shook the world below. 
And played the god, an engine, on his foe. 260 

So drives self-love, through just and through unjust, 
To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust : 
The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause 
Of what restrains him, government and laws. 
For what one likes, if others like as well, — 265 

What serves one will, when many wills rebel — 
How shall he keep what, sleeping or awake, ^ 

A weaker may surprise, a stronger take .'' 

267 Then first the priest tasted, next lie smeared his idol, shook the 

world and played the god as an engine, &c. 
2C4 Of what restrains him, viz. governmeni and laws. 



EPISTLETHIRD. 25 

His safety must his liberty restrain : 

All join to guard what each desires to gain. 270 

Forced into virtue thus by self-defence, 

Even kings learned justice and benevolence : 

Self-love forsook the path it first pursued, 

And found the private in the public good. 

'T was then the studious head or generous mind, 275 
Follower of God, or friend of human kind, 
Poet or patriot, rose but to restore 
The faith and moral. Nature gave before ; 
Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new ; 
If not God's image, yet his shadow drew ; 280 

Taught power's due use to people and to kings, 
Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 
The less, or greater, set so justly true, 
That touching one must strike the other too ; 
Till jarring interests, of themselves, create 285 

The according music of a well mixed state. 
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs 
From order, union, full consent of things ; 
Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made 
To serve, not suffer, strengthen not invade ; 290 

More powerful each as needful to the rest, 
And in proportion as it blesses, blest ; 
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring 
Beast, man, or angel, sei-vant, lord, or king. 

For forms of government let fools contest ; 295 

"Whate'er is best administered is best ; 
For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight ; 
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. 
In faith and hope the world will disagree. 
But all mankind's concern is charity : 300 

All must be false that thwart this one great end : 
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 
Man, like the generous vine, supported lives ; 
The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives. 
On their own axis as the planets run, 305 

Yet make at once their circle round the sun, 
So two consistent motions act the soul. 
And one regards itself, and one the whole. 

Thus God and nature linked the general frame, 
And bade self-love and social be the same. 310 

278 The faith and moral, or system of morals. 

239 Small and great (being- made to serve, &c. each beinff more 

powerful, &c.) draw to one point and bring to one ceiitie. 
302 And all must be of God, &c. 
3 



26 E S S A Y O N fli A N 



EPISTLE IV. 

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to 
Happiness. 

False notions of happiness, philnsophical and popular, answered, 
from verse 19 to 27. It is the end of all men, ami attainable liy all, 30. 
God intends happiness to he equal ; and tn he so, it must he social, since 
all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by 
general, not particuhr laws, 37. As it is necessary for order, and the 
peace and welfare of society, thai external goods should he unequal, 
happiness is not made to- consist in these, 51. But notwithstanding 
that inequality the balance of happiness amongst mankind is kept even 
by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, 70. What the 
happiness of individuals is, as far as it is consistent with the constitu- 
tion of this world ; and that the good man has here the advantage, 77. 
The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, 
or of fortune, 91. The folly of expecting that God should alter his ge- 
neral laws ill favor of particulars, 1:21 . That we are not judges wlioare 
good ; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, 133,&c. That 
external gonds are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, 
or destriiciive of, virtue, 1()7. That even these can make no man happy 
without virtue— instanced in riches, 185,- Honors, 193. Nobility, 200. 
Greatness, 210. Fame, 230. Superior talents, 252, &c. With pictures 
of human infelicity in men possessed of them all,2G'2, &c. That virtue 
alone constitutes happiness, who.-^e object is universal, and whose pros- 
pect eternal, 300. That the perfection of virtue and happiness consists 
in a conformity to the order of providence here, and a resignation to it 
here and hereafter, 307 &c. 

O Happiness ! our being's end and aim ; 
Good, pleasure, ease, content ! whate'er thy name ; 
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, 
For which we bear to live, or dare to die. 
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 

O'erlooked, seen double, by the fool and wise ; 
Plant of celestial seed ! if dropped below. 
Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow } 
Fair opening to some courts propitious shine. 
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine .? 10 

Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield. 
Or reaped in iron harvests of the field } 
Where grows } — where grows it not } If vain our toil, 
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil : 
Fi.xed to no spot is happiness sincere ; 15 

'T is no where to be foui^d, or every where : 
'T is never to be bought, but always free ; 
And fled from monarchs, St. John ! dwells with thee. 

I. Ask of the learn'd the way > The learn'd are blind : 
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind. 20 

Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, 
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these ; 



EPISTLEFOURTH. 27 

Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain ; 
Some, swelled to gods, confess even virtue vain ; 
Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25 

To trust in every thing, or doubt of all. 

Who thus define it, say they more or less 
Than this, that happiness is happiness ? 

II. Take nature's path, and mad opinion's leave ; 
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive ; 30 

Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell ; 
There needs but thinking right and meaning well ; 
And, mourn our various portions as we please, 
Equal is common sense, and common ease. 

Remember, man, " the Universal Cause 35 

Acts not by partial, but by general laws," 
And makes what happiness we justly call, 
Subsist not in the good of one, but all. 
There 's not a blessing individuals find. 
But some way leans and hearkens to the kind ; 40 

No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, 
No caverned hermit, rests self-satisfied. 
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend. 
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend. 
Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 

All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink : 
Each has his share ; and who would more obtain, 
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain. 

Order is heaven's first law ; and this confessed, 
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 

More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence 
That such are happier, shocks all common sense. 
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess, 
If all are equal in their happiness ; 

But mutual wants this happiness increase ; 55 

All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace. 
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; 
Bliss is the same in subject or in king, 
In who obtain defence, or who defend, 
In him who is, or him who finds a friend : 60 

27 Say they, who thus define i(, more or less, &c. 

32 Needs is often a contraciioii of need is. There is need only of 

thinking right nnd meaning well. 

33 Mourn we our various portions, &c. 
37 What we justly call happiness. 

43 They who pretend, &c. seek an admirer. 

49 And this being confessed. 

51 But he who infers — shocks, ifcc. 

59 In those who obtaiDj &c. 



28 ESSAYONMAN. 

Heaven breathes through every member of the whole 

One common blessing, as one common soul, 

But fortune's gifts, if each alike possessed, 

And each were equal, must not all contest ? 

If then to all men happiness was meant, 65 

God in externals could not place content. 

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, 

And these be happy called, unhappy those ; 

But heaven's just balance equal will appear. 

While those are placed in hope, and these in fear : 70 

Not present good or ill, the joy or curse, 

But future views of better, or of worse. 

Oh sons of eai'th ! attempt ye still to rise, 

By mountains piled on mountains to the skies ? 

Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, 75 

And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. 

III. Know, all the good that individuals find. 
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind. 
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, 
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. 80 
But health consists with temperance alone ; 
And peace, O virtue ! peace is all thy own. 
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain ; 
But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. 
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, • 85 

Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right > 
Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curs'd. 
Which meets contempt, or which compassion, first? 
Count all the advantage prosperous vice attains, 
'T is but what virtue files from and disdains ; 90 

And grant the bad what happiness they would. 
One they must want, which is, to pass for good. 
O blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, 
Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe ! 
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95 
Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest. 
But fools, the good alone unhappy call, 
For ills or accidents that chance to all. 
See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just ! 
See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust ! 100 

See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife ! 

62 As it breathes one common soul. 

71 Not present good or ill but future views are the joy or curse. 

77 All the good— pleasure— joys lie in three words. 

86 Who risk the most, they that take, &c. 

93 O they are blind, &^c. 



E P I S T L E F O U R T H . 29 

Was this their virtue, or contempt of life ? 

Say, was it virtue, more though heaven ne'er gave, 

Lamented Dii»by ! sunk thee to the grave ? 

Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, . 105 

Why full of days and honor lives the sire ? 

Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath, 

When nature sickened and each gale was death ? 

Or why so long (in life if long can be) 

Lent heaven a parent to the poor and me ? 110 

What makes all physical or moral ill ? 
There deviates nature, and here wanders will. 
God sends not ill, if rightly understood, 
Or partial ill is universal good, 

Or change admits, or nature lets it fall, 115 

Short, and but rare, till man improved it all. 
Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause, 
Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws ? 

IV. Shall burning J3tna, if a sage requires, 

Forget to thunder, and recall her fires ? 120 

On air or sea, new motions be impressed, 

O blameless Bethel ! to relieve thy breast ? 

When the loose mountain trembles from on high. 

Shall gravitation cease, if you go by .'' 

Or some old temple, nodding to its fall, 125 

For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall? 

V. But still this world, so fitted for the knave, 
Contents us not. A better shall we have .'' 

A kingdom of the just then let it be : 

But first consider how those just agree. 130 

The good must merit God's peculiar care ; 

But who but God can tell us who they are ? 

One thinks on Calvin heaven's own spirit fell ; 

Another deems him instrument of hell : 

If Calvin feels heaven's blessing, or its rod, 135 

This cries there is, and that, there is no God. 

What shocks one part will edify the rest; 

Nor with one system can they all be blest. 

The very best will variously incline, 

And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. 140 

Whatever is, is right. — This world, 't is true, 
Was made for Ca;sar — but for Titus too : 
And which more blest ? who chained his country ? say, 
Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day ? 

VI. " But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is 
fed." 145 

3* 



E88AY ON MAN. 

What then ? Is the reward of virtue bread ? 

That, vice may merit, 't is the price of toil ; 

The icnave deserves it, when he tills the soil ; 

The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main, 

Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. 150 

The good man may be weak, be indolent ; 

Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. 

But grant him riches, your demand is o'er.? 

" No : shall the good want health, the good want power .?" 

Add health and power, and every earthly thing ; 155 

" Why bounded power ? why private .'' why no king .''" 

Nay, why external for internal given ? 

Why is not man a god, and earth a heaven ? 

Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive 

God gives enough, while he has more to give : 160 

Immense the power, immense were the demand ; 

Say, at what part of nature will they stand ? 

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy. 
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy, 
Is virtue's prize : a better would you fix ? 165 

Then give humility a coach and six, 
Justice a conqu(!ror's sword, or truth a gown, 
Or public spirit its great cure, a crown. 
Weak, foolish man I will heaven reward us there 
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here .'' 170 
The boy and man an individual makes. 
Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes ? 
Go, like the Indian, in another life 
Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife, 
x\s well as dream such trifles are assigned, 175 

As toys and empires for a godlike mind. 
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring 
No joy, or be destructive of the thing. 
How oft by these at sixty are undone 
The virtues of a saint at twentyone ! 180 

To whom can riches give repute or trust, 
Content or pleasure, but the good or just? 
Judges and senates have been bought for gold ; 
Esteem and love were never to be sold. 
O fool ! to think God hates the worthy mind, 185 

159 They who ask, &c. 

161 It' the power were immense, &c. 

175 As well as dream that such trifles as toys and empires are as- 
signed, &c. rewards that would bring no joy. 

H5 To think thai God hates the worthy mind because he lacks a 
lliousand pounds a year 1 



EPI8TLEFOURTH. 31 

The lover and the love of human kind, 

Who^e life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, 

Because he wants a thousand pounds a year ! 

Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part, thcn-e all the honor lies. 190 

Fortune in men has some small difference made. 
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade ; 
The cobhler aproned, and the parson gowned. 
The fiiar hooded, and the monarch crowned. 
" What differ more, you cry, than crown and cowl .^" 195 
ril tell you, friend ; a wise man and a fool. 
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk. 
Or, cobbler like, the parson will be drunk. 
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow ; 
The rest is all but leather or prunello. 200 

Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race. 
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece ; 
But by your father's worth, if yours you rate. 
Count me those only who were good and great. 
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood, 205 

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood, 
Go ! and pretend your family is young ! 
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long. 
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cov/ards.^ 
Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards. 210 

Look next on greatness ; say where greatness lies ? 
" Where, but among the heroes and the wise .?" 
Heroes are much the same, the point 's agreed. 
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede : 
The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find 215 
Or make, an enemy of all mankind ! 
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes, 
Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nose. 
No less alike the politic and wise ; 

All sly, slow things, with circumspective eyes ; 220 

Men in their loose, unguarded hours they take, — 
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. 
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat ; 
'T is phrase absurd to call a villain great; 
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, 225 

Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. 

203 Count to me only tliose, &c. 

209 Alas! all the Llooil of all the Howanls (S<mnot. 

214 The purpos': of their lives being to tiiiil, &c. 

218 No less alike are the politic, &c. 

221 He who wickedly^ &c. 



32 . E8SAYONMAN. 

Who noble ends by noble means obtains, 

Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains. 

Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed 

Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. 230 

What's fame ? a fancied life in others' breath ; 
A thing beyond us, even before our death. 
Just what you hear, you have ; and w^hat 's unknown, 
The same, my lord, if TuUy's, or your own. 
All that we feel of it begins and ends 235 

In the small circle of our foes or friends ; 
To all besides as much an empty shade, 
An Eugene living, as a Ccesar dead : 
Alike or when or where they shone or shine, 
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine. 249 

A wit 's a feather, and a chief a rod : 
An honest man 's the noblest work of God. 
Fame but from death a villain's name can save. 
As justice tears his body from the grave. 
When what to oblivion better were resigned, 245 

Is hung on high, to poison half mankind. 
All fame is foreign, but of true desert, 
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart : 
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas : 250 

And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels, 
Than Csesar with a senate at his heels. 

In parts superior, what advantage lies ? 
Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise ? 
'T is but to know how little can be known ; 255 

To see all others'. faults, and feel our own : 
Condenmed in business, or in arts, to drudge, 
Without a second, or without a judge : 
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land, 
All fear, none aid you, and few understand. 260 

Painful pre-eminence ! yourself to view 
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too. 

Bring then these blessings to a strict account ; 
Make fair deductions ; see to what they mount ; 
How much of other each is sure to cost ; 265 

How each for other oft is wholly lost ; 
How inconsistent greater goods with these ; 
How sometimes life is risked, and always ease : 

234 Is the same, whether Tully's or your own. 

237 To all besides the small circle, an Eugene living is as much 
an empty shade as a dead Csesar is. 



EPISTLE FOURTH. 33 

Think, and if still these things thy envy call, 

Say, wouldst thou be the man to whom they fall ? 270 

To sigh for ribbands if thou art so silly, 

Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. 

Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life ? 

Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus's wife. 

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined, 275 

The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind : 

Or, ravished with the whistling of a name, 

See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame ! 

If all, united, thy ambition call, 

From ancient story learn to scorn them all. 280 

There, in the rich, the honored, famed, and great, 

See the false scale of happiness complete ! 

Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows. 

From dirt and sea-weed, as proud Venice rose ; 

In each how guilt and greatness equal ran, 285 

And all that raised the hero, sunk the man; 

Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold, 

But stained with blood, or ill exchanged for gold : 

Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease, 

Or infamous for plundered provinces. 290 

O wealth ill fated ! which no act of fame 

E'er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame ! 

What greater bliss attends their close of life ? 

Some greedy minion, or imperious wife, 

The trophied arches, storied halls invade, 295 

And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade. 

Alas ! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray. 

Compute the morn and evening to the day ; 

The whole amount of that enormous fame 

A tale that blends their glory with their shame ! 30O 

Know then this truth, (enough for man to know,) 
*' Virtue alone is happiness below." 
The only point where human bliss stands still, 
And tastes the good without the fall to ill ; 
Where only merit constant pay receives, 305 

is blest in what it takes, and what it gives ; 
The joy unequalled, if its end it gain, 
And if it lose, attended with no pain ; 
Without satiety, though e'er so blessed, 
And but more relished as the more distressed ; 310 

277 Or i/ ravished, &.c. . 

290 The whole amount of that enormous fame will be a tale, &c. 

307 This is the only point, &c. 



S4 ESSAYONAIAN. 

The broadest niirtb unfeeling folly weara, 

Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears : 

Good, from each object, from each place acquired ; 

Forever exercised, yet never tired ; 

Never elated, while one man 's oppressed ; 315 

Never dejected, while another 's blessed ; 

And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 

Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain. 

See the sole bliss, heaven could on all bestow ! 
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know : 320 
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, 
The bad must miss, the good, untaught, will find ; 
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road. 
But looks through nature up to nature's God ; 
Pursues that chain which links the immense design, 325 
Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine ; 
Sees, that no being any bliss can know, 
But touches some above, and some below ; 
Learns from this union of the rising whole. 
The fii*st, last purpose of the human soul ; 330 

And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, 
All end, — in love of God, and love of man. 
For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal, 
And opens still, and opens on his soul ; 
Till lengthened on to Faith, and unconfined, 335 

It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. 
He sees why nature plants in man alone 
Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown: 
(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind 
Are given in vain ; but what they seek, they find :) 310 
Wise is her present ; she connects in this 
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss ; 
At once his ov/n bright prospect to be blest, 
And strongest motive to assist the rest. 
Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine, 345 

Gives thee to make thy neighbor's blessing thine. 
Is this too little for the boundless heart ? 
Extend it, let thy enemies have part : 
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense, 
In one close system of benevolence ; 350 

Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, 

317 And where no wants remain, no wishes can. 

323 He who, slave to no sect, takes no private road, pursues, joins, 

sees, learns and knows. 
323 Tliat touches not some above, &c. 
343 At once she connects his own, &c. 
350 Thou wilt be happier in the same degree thou art kinder. 



EPISTLEFOURTH. 2Sf 

x\nd height of bliss but height of charity. 

God loves from whole to parts ; But human soul 

Must rise from individual to the whole. 

Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, 365 

As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake ; 

Ihe centre moved, a circle straight succeeds ; 

Another still, and still another spreads ; 

Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace ; 

His country next; and next all human race : 360 

Wide and more wide, the overflowings of the mind 

Tak(! every creature in, of every kind : 

Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest, 

And heaven beholds its image in his breast. 

Come then, my friend, my genius, come along; 365 
O master of the poet and the song ! 
And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends, 
To man's low passions, or their glorious ends. 
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise. 
To fall. with dignity, with temper rise ; 370 

Formed by thy converse, happily to steer 
From grave to gay, from lively to severe ; 
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease. 
Intent to reason, or polite to please. 

O ! while, along the stream of time, thy name 875 

Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame, 
Say, shall my little bark, attendant sail. 
Pursue the triumph, and pai'take the gale ? 
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose, 
Whose sons shall blusli their fathers were thy foes, ^0 
Shall then this verse to future age pretend 
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend ? 
That, urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art 
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart ; 
For wit's false mirror held up nature's light; 385 

Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right ? 
That reason, passion, answer one great aim ; 
That true self-love and social are the same ; 
That virtue only makes our bliss below ; 
And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know? 390 

35~. The centre being moved. 369 Teach me to steer, &c. 



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